Furniture giant not committed to region, but open to proposals

NORTH COUNTY  IKEA could open a second San Diego County store somewhere in North County if the right opportunity arises, a company spokesman said this week.

The popular Swedish furniture chain won’t be taking over a newly vacant Lowe’s building in San Marcos because it’s much too small, but the company is open to other possibilities and suggestions, spokesman Joseph Roth said.

IKEA’s store in Mission Valley is not large enough to display and store all the inventory company officials would like, Roth said. It’s 198,000 square feet, while IKEA has increased the size of a typical store in recent years to between 350,000 and 400,000 square feet.

“It has capacity issues,” Roth said of the Mission Valley store, which opened in 2000. “In a perfect world, that store would be double the size.”

IKEA officials discussed building a store near Cal State San Marcos in 2006 before the economy crashed. But Roth said the company has never committed to a second San Diego County store and hasn’t made finding a North County site a priority.

He said IKEA’s usual litmus test for a store is whether an area has 2 million people; North County has roughly 1.2 million. However, the store would likely attract shoppers from burgeoning Southwest Riverside County, which doesn’t have an IKEA.

The company has four other stores in Southern California: Costa Mesa, Carson, Covina and Burbank.

Roth said IKEA has considered North County because San Diego County has 3.2 million people, nearing the threshold to support two stores.

But he said the Mission Valley store’s central location makes it adequate to serve the entire county.

However, he said the company was open to proposals.

“If an opportunity comes up, we would certainly return phone calls,” he said.

Finding a suitable site might be a hurdle.

IKEA wants sites that are at least 15 acres and can accommodate stores of at least 350,000 square feet.

The vacant Lowe’s in San Marcos is 125,000 square feet and on a relatively small footprint inside a shopping plaza.

San Marcos officials last month rejected an offer from Walmart to take over the site, saying they were confident they’d find a quality tenant. But nothing has been announced since then.

Though IKEA rejected the Lowe’s site, Mayor Jim Desmond said Wednesday that San Marcos officials would welcome the popular chain at any other feasible site. The city is already home to a “furniture row” along state Route 78.